SPOTLIGHTS

Blind advisor makes proposals online Fuzhou, Jan. 10-Xia Rongqiang, the first blind member of the advisory body to east China’s Fujian Province, submitted a proposal via the Internet urging more budget for blind people’s education. Xia is a member of the Fujian Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. For the first time online submission of proposals to the committee’s upcoming annual session was allowed, and Xia’s bill marked the first of such submission. Xia said his election to the committee showed that disabled people in China enjoyed equal rights on discussing political affairs. Xia is principal of a blind school in Fuzhou, capital of Fujian, which is affiliated to the Hadley School for the Blind, an institute aiming to help educate the blind internationally. The Hadley School has branches in more than 100 countries and regions all over the world, but Xia’s school is the only one in China and Asia.